Page 1334 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
review of the care plans for children and young people in the child protection system. As members would be aware, many of those children and young people have experienced quite significant trauma. It can be the case that contact with birth parents is a source of trauma, upset or behavioural responses in children and young people that are quite disruptive to their lives. Those contact arrangements are, quite properly, continually reviewed and worked through in the context of care team meetings, in the context of case management, with the best interests of children and young people at the forefront of all of those considerations.
Children and young people—parental contact
MRS KIKKERT: My question is again to the Minister for Children, Youth and Families. Minister, it has come to our attention that supervised contact visits between children and their birth families have been terminated when a parent has attempted to explain to the child the contact restrictions that child protection authorities have placed on them. How often are supervised contact visits terminated because a birth parent has tried to explain the restrictions that your government has placed on them?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for the question. It is the case that sometimes, in my understanding, contact visits are terminated because a child is becoming distressed at the information or the way that they are interacting with their birth parent. These are very difficult and very complex situations, as you understand, Madam Speaker, as well as anyone in this place.
I do not know that I will be able to get Mrs Kikkert a specific answer to that question, and I would note that very often in these complex matters the adults involved have very, very different interpretations of the events that occur on any particular occasion. One adult may interpret the termination of contact for a particular reason, and another adult involved, indeed a caseworker or a supervisor of that contact from ACT Together, may have a very, very different interpretation of what occurred during that contact. I would be surprised if I could get a response with a specific number, in the way that Mrs Kikkert has asked the question, but I will take the question on notice and come back with further information.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, who explains to children in care and protection what restrictions on contact visits have been placed on their birth parents, or are they left to assume that limited contact is the parent’s choice?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mrs Kikkert for the question. It will depend on the individual circumstances of the child or young person in care who is going to be the person who primarily communicates with them in relation to the contact. It may be a carer; it may be an ACT Together caseworker; it may be a child or youth protection services caseworker. That will depend on the age and stage of the child, the relationship with that child that each of those people has, and who organises the contact. Madam Speaker, as you would be aware, sometimes contact is organised and supervised by child and protection services or ACT Together; sometimes contact is managed by carers themselves, with the birth parents, in a more natural way.
It is the case, unfortunately, that sometimes contact visits do not go ahead because the parent is not available or does not turn up for the contact. Sometimes parents do not
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video